Miami Heat: O.j. Mayo In Town, Just To Visit

October 21, 2009|Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick on October 21, 2009 06:25 PM

During a radio interview this summer, Pat Riley said that he never considered drafting O.J. Mayo rather than Michael Beasley back in 2008.

Wednesday, Mayo said he thought the Heat was interested but, no, he wasn't expecting to go No. 2.

"The year that (Michael) Beasley had in college, he could have easily been the No. 1 pick," Mayo said, before a preseason game against the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena. "But I tried to do well in the workouts and work hard, and hopefully he'd give me a chance."

Memphis went 24-58 in Mayo's first season. That meant a different sort of pressure than Beasley faced. The Heat didn't need Beasley to be a featured player, but it also had less patience with him, partly because the team was fighting for playoff position. Mayo was allowed to play through mistakes.

Still, it sounded Wednesday like he would have preferred the other situation.

What was the hardest thing to adjust to as a rookie?

"The amount of games we were losing in a row, shoot, I think we went the whole month of December without winning," Mayo said. "You just come from winning all your life, and you finally get to where you want to be your whole life, and then not winning right away. It was pretty aggravating. It's tough to have energy for another game when you're losing three or four games in a row. At the same time, we've got a young team, so each and every day of practice was very competitive. So we felt ourselves getting better. We were in a lot more games late in the season, it's just that mental lapses cost us from winning."

It's hindsight, because few were calling for Mayo at the time.

And Mayo's skill set still seems better suited to the same position that Dwyane Wade plays.